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Combating Violence : Role of Media

 

 

By Mr. Gulab Kothari

Among the five great vows, Ahimsa, the vow of nonviolence. of non-injury to living beings. is the most important. In its etymological form the word ahimsa seems to have a negative connotation like aparigraha (non- acquisitiveness). It is unfortunate that the negative aspect of ahimsa has been overemphasised at the expense of its positive form. In ahimsa it is undoubtedly important that there should be no killing, riots, aggression towards others, but in its essence it stands for "reverence for life" which embraces compassion and service. In order to understand the positive concept of ahimsa it is imperative to dwell on the idea of violence (himsa). It is noteworthy that himsa has not been aptly translated as violence. The details of both the words in their respective literatures are not compatible. As the concept of mass media does not originate from India, it speaks more in relation to violence and not about himsa. As such, the role of the media in this respect is far from satisfactory.

There is a rationale in saying so. In its wider and comprehensive form himsa is basically akin to spirit but the media persons treat it not in its philosophical sense but in its gross form or at the most they merely consider it as an intellectual issue. They seldom talk about the spiritual environment of man which is the root cause. This is owing to the fact that they are not given such an orientation in their schooling process. They hardly practise it later. For them, physical and material issues are more important because these are related to social status of which they always want to be a part.

Needless to say that media has recently been infested with the octopus-impact of T. V. which has in turn infected the entire media -world. Due to ever-widening consumeris the social and democratic role of media has drifted towards commercialism. To achieve popularity media has to necessarily talk about crime and focus more on entertainment rather than on support of serious spiritual/moral issues or against non- serious issues. The commercial tilt of the media has been responsible for publicising a life-style based on ad-revenue. Things like Coke, Pepsi, fast-food, cosmetics, etc. attract more space than moral or philosophical issues. The media has no courage to talk about the dangers of such products as it would amount to the ruining of their material gains.

It may not be difficult to recall that there was a time when media was the voice of the people, for the people. It is painful to see that today it has become the voice of the owner. Nonessential issues are greatly highlighted as compared to essential issues. For one reason or the other trifling matters find more space than the sublime things which have bearing upon the intrinsic value of life. The entry of foreign producers has made the matters still worse. As they have the money power they can easily influence the journalists. The owners coax these producers for advertisements day and night and stoop down to their demands and desires. As the atma (soul) is shrouded by the trigunas (three virtues viz. SAT, TAM, RAJ) so does the media tend to see things through the spectacles of these producers.

The issue relating to himsa (violence) and its opposite aspect ahimsa needs to be dealt with objectively from the perspective of universal fraternity or global brotherhood (vishwa-maitri). It is immensely important that the positive aspect of ahimsa must be stressed. It is only by ahimsa in its positive form that we can attain universal friendship and general goodwill. As we have firm belief in the plurality and equality of living-beings we hold that nobody should be hurt or killed. Ahimsa is not to be practised at the physical level only but at mental, emotional and spiritual levels as well. There should be no himsa by 'man' (mind), vachan (speech) , or kaya (body). The real Ahimsa means that one would not kill get killing done or approve any act of killing. In fact, the root cause of himsa is possession (parigraha). Thus, for attaining ahimsa, physical possession and the spirit of possession would have to be restricted. As ahimsa is the concept of the oneness of all living beings, the menace of violence will be automatically eliminated.

Thus the concepts of himsa and ahimsa are not external issues. They need a deeper treatment. The practice of ahimsa and shunning of violence (himsa) in all its forms must start from the individual through self-introspection. The antidote to violence is the individual commitment to ahimsa and his personal transformation. A determined mind is bound to reach his goal 'know thyself' (atmanam viddi) is the first step towards ahimsa. The individual has to identify himself or herself with the rest of the human beings / other souls.

In our day-to-day life we are all the time involved in physical and intellectual issues. We tend to stand on the periphery and neglect the centrality of the issues. We neglect atma and as such fail to appreciate the issues like ahimsa or aparigraha. So long as we are the prisoners of duality our vision will lack clarity. One can khow oneself only when the 'third eye' or sixth sense opens up and the mist of duality disappears. When the individual starts having a feeling of oneness with the others, one can achieve global friendship. The cause of our present-day violence is that we are being fed on violence, crime and immorality by our media; we are goaded day and night to be more acquisitive, aggressive, intolerant and insensitive by our day-to-day way of life. So long as this continues, it will be a wild goose chase if we aspire for a society that might be free from violence.

The other major reason for our rampant violence is our non-vegetarian food habit. Our food habits determine our behaviour. We are, what we eat. The sattwik food will generate in us good habits, equanimity of mind and a desire for universal well-being. On the contrary, a non-vegetarian diet will create in us tamas, evil tendencies which will make us animal-like, cruel and cold-blooded. For others, sufferings we shall have no feeling. We shall become self-centred. A violent environment is bound to have its effect on all, no one can escape its evil influence. In his book J. Krishnamurthy has aptly observed, "We have built a society which is violent and we, as human beings are violent. The environment, the culture in which we live, is the product of our endeavour, of our struggle, of our pain, of our appalling brutalities. "(Beyond Violence: B.I. Publications, New Delhi, 1973, p. 75). In order to counteract this violent society the earlier we switch over to vegetarianism the better. Vegetarianism and ahimsa go together.

As the media people are also the denizens of this very society they cannot escape the onslaught of materialism. They are an easy prey to the designs of the multinationals who are making them more ambitious and greedy. This has taken them away from their readers. Higher lobbies of power and pelf attract them more. They ape them in their language, behaviour and priorities.

With the advancement of technology, media, particularly T.V., is getting more and more powerful by thriving on crime and cheap entertaintment. It fascinates the young generation. Violence begets violence. As our young people lack proper education they tend to become easy victims to the glamour of the media. Parents have no time to educate their children. Whatever they pick they (children) pick from what they see on the T.V. or the silver screen. The damage being done by T. V. is almost incalculable. We feel so helpless to combat this great menace. Concentrated efforts are wanting, sporadic efforts are proving ineffective. What to communicate and what not to communicate through the media has become a dilemma.

How to wage a war against all this? The total change of psyche of the individual and society is the only answer to this question. In the transformation of psyche, practice of ahimsa is needed at all levels. On a deeper consideration of ahimsa at all the four levels of our being, i.e. physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual, it should be borne in mind that no life can survive without himsa. The practical form would be the lifestyle with least himsa. This 'least' needs greater efforts at individual level and regular practice, and consistent alertness. Dr. Radhakrishnan's words may perhaps bear out my intention: "In this world it is not possible for us to abstain from violence altogether. As the Mahabharat has it, Jivo Jivasya Jivanam. What we are called upon to do is to increase the scope, so to say, of nonyiolence (yatnat alpatra bhavet). By our self- effort we must reduce the scope of force and increase the scope of persuasion. So ahimsa is the idea which we have set before ourselves." (Religion and Culture, Hind Pocket Books, Delhi, 1968, p. 137). It's a Herculean task to address a problem of each individual and persuade him or her to fall in line. What's the attraction we offer them to follow what we say? It has to be a stronger, appealing attraction to distract them from the T.V. which may change their perception of life, happiness and success, and make them inward looking, where in the beginning there are ghost images one cannot face.

Everyone wants to lead an easy life. The process of inward looking needs greater effort. How to create this patience? Do we have necessary infrastructure to reach out to each individual? Media is the only means. A smaller effort can be made to educate these journalists in the light of ahimsa. They may be invited to regular conferences, seminars, workshops and may be requested to do justice to society by exercising little restraint on the mighty pen on sensitive issues, create social awareness of fundamental values for the common good of the people. But this alone won't work. The essentials of living the good life have to be taught to our children at an early stage. 'Life' has to be contrasted with 'living'. As home is no more the first school on moral issues and parents are no more aware of the intrinsic evolution of the children it is necessary to look for a viable alternative to wean our children off the glamourous but suicidal impact of T. V. or cinema. The new alternative has to be much stronger than T.V. At the moment such an idea seems to be almost impossible, particularly when the cost of media as a business house is very high. Profits are more important than the issues like nonviolence. Today some owners are doing the worst. They are turning mafias, smugglers and criminals, using the umbrella of their media. Good journalists won't survive there. Who and how can such people be transformed?

The major tool of himsa is money power and muscle power. Sex is the easiest pleasure one desires out of all material life, which even the poor can afford. Electronic media in particular thrives on sex, adding fuel to fire. It brings larger sums to channels and producers and pulls large crowds. All the human curiosity in this field is further satisfied by internet, another media dinosaur. It's becoming more powerful than even T.V. It reaches each individual individually and transforms him before anyone else reaches him. Any effort after that age would be futile. We need to act much earlier. Transform parents to transform children, transform teachers, social workers, create an environment to stay on with the issue of morality. It is already losing ground in search of over-night riches. Good people would always avoid confrontation with bad ones and the bad ones keep growing. Who would take the lead when criminals are reaching the parliament, making laws for people and collecting money by all sources and methods?

Under these circumstances ahimsa itself becomes the first casualty in the new millennium. Himsa does not want to see ahimsa around. The billion dollar question is: Can we prepare the new generation to fight back? Another question glares blatantly into our face: Who needs nonviolence? Only a handful of people. Where is the support from the masses? What should be done at this juncture? The only thing which can bring about the desired changes is masses' reaction, rightly to be called revolution, which can also change our media. When a large majority of people want to see crime on the screen or in print, people will certainly join riots, they would hardly condemn it. No one would cry for nonviolence. Individual incidents would engage the attention of only a small section of people talking about it. The cry for ahimsa, peace, goodwill, social harmony will generally go unheeded by the masses.

As an effective alternative to all this is the imparting of education which may promote global friendship and mutual understanding. The present system of education needs to be revamped and totally overhauled. Basic human values must find a greater place in education even more than the idea of earning one's bread and butter. The inculcation of higher values like ahimsa, aparigraha, tolerance, etc. in the system of education will create a conducive climate for our people. We should only talk about friendship to promote ahimsa and not of himsa. Himsa need not be mentioned at all anywhere. Only through global friendship and its positive aspects, possibly, we may distract people from the word himsa and show them the new world of love, peace and happiness-the Sacchidananda.

Besides, we need to create a sense of time management and emphasise the value of time. We must be selective so far as our approach to the media is concerned. Indiscriminate viewing of programmes and indiscriminate approach to media will still aggravate our malady. There has to be definite thought behind what to see and read and not to just see and read. Even this effort would bring about great results.

 

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Author : Mr. Gulab Kothari, is the Managing Director, Rajasthan Patrika Ltd., Jaipur and is an author of several books including' Manas' a popular series of books.

Article Source : Anuvibha Reporter ( Special Issue : Dec. 2000 )
Ahimsa, Peacemaking, Conflict Prevention and Management Proceedings and Presentations
Fourth International Conference on Peace and Nonviolent Action ( IV ICPNA )
New Delhi : Nov. 10-14, 1999

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Mail to : Ahimsa Foundation
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